The Non-Glamorous Side of Photography

“Copyright/Copywrong in Image Licensing” – If you are in Southern California this Saturday morning and license your work or otherwise make money from photography then this lecture by the ASPP is recommended. The event is going to cover current copyright law essentials such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Fair Use, infringments and have to have them removed them from the Internet. Space is limited so sign up now.

Zoriah’s Budget Cutbacks – Independent war photojournalist, Zoriah is struggling like many due to the current economic climate and needs our help to keep him going. Have a look at his blog to see if you can help him out.

Tom O. Scott Photography – Tom Scott’s sandscape photos caught my eye the other day as I was browsing the Ordover Gallery in Solana Beach. His work really blew me away. It has been a long time since I have seen something original in nature photography so his photos were really refreshing to discover.

In the previous segment of these articles on photography branding I touched upon the concept of brand identity. The reason why I bring that up is because I heard a story the other day about two bottles of the same wine packaged with different labels. One label looked fancy meanwhile the other one looked cheap. When a group of ten people did a wine tasting test not knowing that both bottles had the same identical content, nine out of the ten people preferred the wine that had been poured from the fancy label. They felt that the fancy label wine tasted better so therefore the conclusion from that study was that wine with effective marketing tastes better than wine that isn’t marketed well. Taste is all a matter of perception after all. Perception is all in the mind. So where does that leave your photography?

It’s all about how you present yourself and your work. For example, if you aspire to be a luxury wedding photographer then it wouldn’t be in your best interests to have a website that looks like it dates back to 1998. You’ve got to present yourself as being relevant.